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AL in bid to defuse Libya-Saudi row

The Arab League is trying to defuse a crisis between Riyadh and Tripoli over an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate the Saudi crown prince.

23 Dec 2004 15:14 GMT

Amr Musa says the Arab League wants to contain the situation

Secretary-General Amr Musa said he had been in contact with the foreign ministers of both countries, Prince Saud al-Faisal and Abd al-Rahman Shalgham, respectively.

"We will continue our contacts. The issue is not open to public discussion and we are dealing with it with the aim of containing the situation and not worsening it," Musa told reporters.

Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it was recalling its ambassador from Libya and expelling the Libyan envoy in Riyadh over Tripoli's alleged role in a plot to assassinate Crown Prince Abd Allah bin Abd al-Aziz.

Libyan denial

Libya expressed its surprise at the Saudi move and called for the Arab League to launch an investigation.

Libyan foreign ministry official Hassuna Shawish told Aljazeera that his country had nothing to do with the "rebellion" in Saudi Arabia.

He was referring to demonstrations in the kingdom called for last week by an exiled opposition group led by prominent London-based Saudi dissident Saad al-Faqih.

Riyadh's decision to expel the Libyan envoy came one day after the US announced it had put al-Faqih and another Saudi on its list of terrorist financiers.

Shawish insisted that nothing had happened between Saudi Arabia and Libya to justify the expulsion of Tripoli's envoy from Jedda.